Part 92 (1/2)
M. Folgat and Dr. Seignebos looked anxiously at each other.
”Then, my little one,” insisted Dr. Seignebos, ”you are quite sure your mamma was in your room when the first shot was fired?”
”Certainly, doctor. And mamma, when she heard it, rose up straight, and lowered her head, like one who listens. Almost immediately, the second shot was fired. Mamma raised her hands to heaven, and cried out, 'Great G.o.d!' And then she went out, running fast.”
Never was a smile more false than that which Dr. Seignebos forced himself to retain on his lips while the little girl was telling her story.
”You have dreamed all that, Martha,” he said.
The governess here interposed, saying,--
”The young lady has not dreamed it, sir. I, also, heard the shots fired; and I had just opened the door of my room to hear what was going on, when I saw madame cross the landing swiftly, and rush down stairs.
”Oh! I do not doubt it,” said the doctor, in the most indifferent tone he could command: ”the circ.u.mstance is very trifling.”
But the little girl was bent on finis.h.i.+ng her story.
”When mamma had left,” she went on, ”I became frightened, and raised myself on my bed to listen. Soon I heard a noise which I did not know,--cracking and snapping of wood, and then cries at a distance. I got more frightened, jumped down, and ran to open the door. But I nearly fell down, there was such a cloud of smoke and sparks. Still I did not lose my head. I waked my little sister, and tried to get on the staircase, when Cocoleu rushed in like a madman, and took us both out.”
”Martha,” called a voice from the house, ”Martha!”
The child cut short her story, and said,--
”Mamma is calling me.”
And, dropping again her nice little courtesy, she said,--
”Good-by, gentlemen!”
Martha had disappeared; and Dr. Seignebos and M. Folgat, still standing on the same spot, looked at each other in utter distress.
”We have nothing more to do here,” said M. Folgat.
”No, indeed! Let us go back and make haste; for perhaps they are waiting for me. You must breakfast with me.”
They went away very much disheartened, and so absorbed in their defeat, that they forgot to return the salutations with which they were greeted in the street,--a circ.u.mstance carefully noticed by several watchful observers.
When the doctor reached home, he said to his servant,--
”This gentleman will breakfast with me. Give us a bottle of medis.”
And, when he had shown the advocate into his study, he asked,--
”And now what do you think of your adventure?”
M. Folgat looked completely undone.
”I cannot understand it,” he murmured.
”Could it be possible that the countess should have tutored the child to say what she told us?”
”No.”